Rivier Wins Second Consecutive Men’s Volleyball GNAC Championship

For the second consecutive season, top seeded Rivier College Men’s Volleyball beat Emmanuel College 3-0 to claim the 2009 GNAC Championship.  It was a hard fought battle as Emmanuel gave it everything they had to try and slow the Raiders down, but Rivier, the #3 ranked team in Division III volleyball, proved again why they are favored to hold the top spot in next weekend’s NECVA Championship.

The start of game one was very much a back and forth battle as the score remained close.  Rivier finally broke off a run in the middle of the match with some strong blocking and hitting from senior middle hitter Scott Wright to push Rivier’s lead to 5 at 23-18.  Rivier extended the lead even more before Emmanuel started on a short run of their own, however it proved to be too late as Rivier was able to hold off the Saints for the 30-26 victory.

Game 2 saw Rivier jump out quickly as some strong serving by freshman Drew Corwin and sophomore Austin Soucy extended Rivier’s lead to 14-7.  Rivier led by as many as 11 in the set, but some late strong attacks by Emmanuel’s Curtis Abram (San Luis Obispo, CA), Michael Townsend (Beaverdam, VA) and Keoni Rabaino (Tucson, AZ) chipped away at Rivier’s lead before they eventually put the game away on an Austin Soucy attack with the score 30-25.

Emmanuel jumped out to a short lead 4-2 in set 3 before Rivier came back to tie the game at 6-6.  From there it was strong net play by middle hitter’s Wright and Matt Ferreira, who combined for 8 blocks in the match, as well as strong defense by libero Kyle O’Neill (Long Beach, NY) and defensive specialist Chris Convertito (Trumbull, CT) that helped to seal the game and the match for Rivier.  Ferreira ended the match with a kill from the middle with a score of 30-23.

Setter Zach Hansen (Shelton, CT) paced the Raider attack with 39 assists and also chipped in with 1 service ace and 6 digs.  Outside hitter Jared Andreozzi(Barrington, RI) led the Raiders in kills with 11, while fellow classmate Austin Soucy (Toland, CT) added 10 kills of his own along with 9 digs.  Middle hitter Matt Ferreira (Lincoln, RI) also tallied 10 kills with Scott Wright (Salem, NH) chipped in with 9 kills and 5 block.

The Saints were led by Townsend’s 13 kills and 3 blocks while setter Taylor Lowe (Malibu, CA) dished out 27 assists.  Libero Jacob DeLuise (Wakefield, RI) picked up 9 digs and middle hitter Alex Petty (Wayland, MA) put back 3 blocks.

Both team have qualified for next weekend’s NECVA Championship Tournament, which invites the top 16 teams from the 5 NECVA conference schools.  The Tournament will start Friday April 3, 2009 at MIT in Boston, MA.

 

2009 GNAC Men’s Volleyball All Tournament Team:
Joseph Lipski – Lasell College
Sean Lauro – Johnson & Wales University
Curtis Abram – Emmanuel College
Taylor Lowe – Emmanuel College
Austin Soucy – Rivier College
Zach Hansen – Rivier College

Tournament MVP:  Scott Wright – Rivier College

 

Courtesy: Rivier Athletic Communications